Kant: Natural Science

Immanuel Kant, Eric Watkins

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781107351981
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Modern Philosophy

Though Kant is best known for his strictly philosophical works in the 1780s, many of his early publications in particular were devoted to what we would call 'natural science'. Kant's Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens (1755) made a significant advance in cosmology, and he was also instrumental in establishing the newly emerging discipline of physical geography, lecturing on it for almost his entire career. In this volume Eric Watkins brings together new English translations of Kant's first publication, Thoughts on the True Estimation of Living Forces (1746–9), the entirety of Physical Geography (1802), a series of shorter essays, along with many of Kant's most important publications in natural science. The volume is rich in material for the student and the scholar, with extensive linguistic and explanatory notes, editorial introductions and a glossary of key terms.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• General editors’ preface
• Editor’s preface
• General introduction
• 1 Thoughts on the true estimation of living forces and assessment of the demonstrations that Leibniz and other scholars of mechanics have made use of in this controversial subject, together with some prefatory considerations pertaining to the force of bodies in general
• 2 Examination of the question whether the rotation of the Earth on its axis by which it brings about the alternation of day and night has undergone any change since its origin and how one can be certain of this, which [question] was set by the Royal Academy of Sciences in Berlin as the prize question for the current year
• 3 The question, whether the Earth is ageing, considered from a physical point of view
• 4 Universal natural history and theory of the heavens or essay on the constitution and the mechanical origin of the whole universe according to Newtonian principles
• 5 Succinct exposition of some meditations on fire
• 6 On the causes of earthquakes on the occasion of the calamity that befell the western countries of Europe towards the end of last year
• 7 History and natural description of the most noteworthy occurrences of the earthquake that struck a large part of the Earth at the end of the year 1755
• 8 Continued observations on the earthquakes that have been experienced for some time
• 9 New notes to explain the theory of the winds, in which, at the same time, he invites attendance at his lectures
• 10 Plan and announcement of a series of lectures on physical geography with an appendix containing a brief consideration of the question: Whether the West winds in our regions are moist because they travel over a great sea
• 11 New doctrine of motion and rest and the conclusions associated with it in the fundamental principles of natural science while at the same time his lectures for this half-year are announced
• 12 Review of Silberschlag's work: Theory of the fireball that appeared on 23 July 1762
• 13 Notice of Lambert's correspondence
• 14 On the volcanoes on the Moon
• 15 Something concerning the influence of the Moon on the weather
• 16 Physical geography
• APPENDIX I Kant’s units of measurement
• APPENDIX II Astronomical data for the solar system given by Kant (with conversions to English miles) and modern values for comparison
• Notes
• Glossary
• Index of names
• Index of places
• Index of subjects